


I miss him

by CerealWithoutMilk



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:47:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29732694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CerealWithoutMilk/pseuds/CerealWithoutMilk
Summary: The base swap seemed like such a great idea. Zedaph had managed to gain ownership of Grian’s mansion! However when looking for supplies, Zedaph finds something linked to Grian’s past, and secrets are revealed.----------This is my first work so any feedback would be greatly appreciated! I hope you enjoy! :)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 98





	I miss him

The sun was shining brightly in the sky overhead. From where Zedaph was standing, he could just make out the silhouette of the mansion. Last week had been the reveal of the HCBBS, or Hermitcraft Big Base Swap, and he had been lucky enough to gain ownership of Grian’s mansion. A mansion! It was definitely different from his Cave of Contraptions, and he would certainly miss many of his machines, but there were so many opportunities to make new contraptions! An elevator here, instant nether portal there…

Zedaph shook his head and looked back towards his new home. It was magnificent. Although he would have to meet up with Grian soon to discuss the limits of what he could and could not do. Until then though, he was just going to settle in, and get to know his new surroundings a little better. Maybe he could make a list of what to do until then? Yeah, that sounded good.

\----------

It had been a few hours, and Zedaph was still wandering about in awe. This place was massive! There was just so much colour! He ran his hand along a nearby piece of spruce log, the texture hard and rough. He looked around further and spotted the diamond chandelier hanging from the ceiling, reflecting the sunlight and casting a calming blue light across the room. It was beautiful. How did Grian have so many diamond blocks? There was so much inspiration around, Zedaph just had to build something. Grian wouldn’t mind, right? He decided to just install something small, so if Grian didn’t like it then it could be easily removed, no harm done. Now he just needed some resources.

It turned out that although Grian had a sorting system, he still had an extreme chest monster problem. Like seriously! It was almost as bad as Scar’s! Zedaph had been searching for ages, looking for some orange-stained glass. His whole plan was focused on it, so without then he’d have nothing to build. Opening another chest, he sighed in disappointment. It only contained some birch wood slabs and a couple seeds. The lid slammed shut and he sat on a nearby shulker. At this rate it would be sunset. Why was it so difficult to find a couple of blocks of glass? He closed his eyes and went to lean back; maybe some quiet would help to gather his thoughts. Then he fell on the floor.

His head hurt from where he had knocked it on a nearby chest during his fall. It wasn’t too bad though, not enough to require a healing potion anyways. Zedaph opened his eyes and tried to look around - his vision was still blurry and it took a while for everything to focus again. When it did, the first thing that he noticed was a dark blue shulker hidden away in the corner. While all the others looked like they’d been open in the past week or so, this one looked as if it hadn’t been opened in years. Which made Zedaph curious. So obviously he was going to open it. Who wouldn’t? 

He slid himself off the floor and made his way towards the box. Something about it felt off, but he brushed the feeling away and continued onwards. Grian wouldn’t mind if he opened it. It was probably just some old box full of something useless like feathers that he had forgotten about. Now the box was in front of him, Zedaph could get a clearer look. It didn’t look any different to the rest of the shulkers, so he slid his hand towards the lid and carefully opened it.

The first thing that hit him was the smell; it smelt strongly of dry wood. There was a notebook, but it had a small lock on the front and Zedaph was obviously going to respect Grian’s privacy and leave it alone. Deeper in the box, there were few pieces of jewelry and some pieces of paper bound together with some string. Inspecting one of the pieces closer, it was clearly a letter. It appeared to be to Grian, from someone called… Taurtis? He’d never heard of someone called that before, so it must’ve been a part of Grian’s past. The letter seemed to just be talking about life on a server, probably Grian’s old one. Zedaph placed the letter down and dug a little deeper. He hand brushed past something soft, and he grabbed whatever it was as to get a closer look. It was a blue sweater, similar to the style Grian wore, but it was what was underneath it that caught Zedaph's attention the most.

Right at the bottom of the box was a pair of headphones. They were black, but each side had a checkered red and blue pattern. Intrigued, he pulled them out to inspect them further. They felt old and well used, and they appeared to still work. They looked cool. Zedaph slid them on his head and pressed the play button. Immediately a tune started playing, the beginning of a song. It was catchy. He found himself starting to hum along, completely forgetting about the orange-stained glass he had tried so hard to find earlier. He could use any old glass, it didn’t matter. Time to get to work!

\---------

Grian had Zedaph’s base. It was… different to what he was used to. He had some ideas, but it would take lots of planning. Anyways, he had agreed to talk to Zedaph first about setting some rules down, so he could plan afterwards. He checked his communicator and saw Zedaph was online. It was a perfect time to talk to him! Pulling out some rockets, he took one last look around before soaring into the sky, in the direction of his old home.

When he landed, it was obvious that someone had been here. Some of his shulkers had migrated across the room and there were less chests than before. Whatever had been done, Zedaph had been busy. Grian walked up the stairs and into the main room. He heard a gentle humming coming from around the corner. The song they were singing to was nice… it sounded familiar. Had he heard it somewhere before?

Then he realised.

Tears started forming in the corner of his eyes as realisation hit him. That was Tau… that was his favorite song. Was he here? Why was it playing? Grian hadn’t heard it since he last saw Taurtis, and that was years ago. Oh God, he missed him. He wanted to see him again. He had to see him again. Grian started running towards the sound of the noise, hope blooming in his chest, tears spilling from his eyes. He was back! He had returned to him! Everything would be fine!

He rounded the corner, prepared to see his oldest friend again, to hug him, to tell him how much he was missed. But he wasn’t there. It wasn’t him. There was no blue shirt and black hair, no happy laughter or smiling face. Instead Grian was met with the back of Zedaph, who was happily building away at some redstone mechanism, still humming along to the song unaware of Grian behind him. But he was wearing the headphones. It had to be him. Why wasn’t it him?

Grian’s head was a mess of emotions. Maybe this was a prank. Was Taur… was he pranking him? Maybe Zedaph was in on it? That had to be it, right? He just had to see him. What wasn’t he jumping out from behind a chest now, laughing? Grian fell to the floor in a head and let out a choked sob, realisation dawning on him. It wasn’t who he thought it was. It was Zedaph. Not Taurtis. Zedaph. 

The man who was building had noticed the noises coming from behind him and taken the headphones off. When he turned and saw Grian, a surprised yelp left his mouth and he rushed forwards, eager to help his friend. Grian was still sobbing on the floor, his legs tucked to his chest, rocking slightly.

“Grian! Oh goodness, Grian! Are you alright? Are you hurt? What happened?”

He received no response, and after checking his communicator to see if he could call anyone, Mumbo maybe, he realised he was alone. No one else was online. Turning his attention back to the shaking human in front of him, Zedaph gulped. He’d only ever comforted Tango before, and he was pretty bad at it, so how was he supposed to help Grian? They weren’t exactly the closest on the server.

Deciding to try and get the red-sweatered person off the floor, he gently took Grian’s hand and tried to lead him to a bed. It semi-worked; Grian did follow but it took a while to get him off the floor. Once they were sitting on the nearest bed, Zedaph cleared his throat.

“Grian, um… I-”

He was cut off when Grian wrapped his arms tightly around him. It took him by surprise, then he slowly placed his arms on his friends back, rubbing it slightly. His shirt was getting very wet.

“It’s not him! Why is it not him? Why isn’t he here?” Grian cried out, digging his head into Zedaph’s shoulder. 

“Uhm.. who isn’t here? What’s wrong?”

“He should be here! I just want to see him. His favorite song… it was playing. I thought he.. I thought Taurtis was back.”

Zedaph took a sharp intake of breath. The letters, the headphones, the music, it all made sense. He had caused this. What had he done?

“Grian, I am so sorry. I didn’t realise. I should have asked before using the headphones. I.. I can’t believe I caused this. Could you forgive me?”

Grian nodded slightly, before moving closer and hugging Zedaph tighter. From there, only his muffled sobs and Zedaph’s gentle shushing could be heard echoing around the empty halls of the mansion.

“I miss him.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've only recently started watching Zedaph so I apologise if I got his character completely wrong. Hope that you enjoyed!


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